GETTING STARTED WITH ASSIST

	(1) The Correct Path

	    ASSIST may have been installed in a non-traditional
	    directory.  Such a capability is supported so that users
	    can build and access ASSIST without the need of system
	    manager support.  If this has been done at your site,
	    please ensure that you have placed the bin directory
	    containing ASSIST and related programs in your path.

	    Normally, this is done by adding that directory to
	    the 'path' environment variable  in the .cshrc file
	    (csh and tcsh users) or your 'PATH' environment variable
	    in the .profile file (sh and ksh users).

	(2) Define Environment Variables

	    The 'UPARM' environment variable must be defined to point
	    to a directory into which parameter files can be written.
	    Normally, UPARM is added to a user's .login file:

		setenv UPARM <path of uparm>

	    For IRAF users, set UPARM to the IRAF uparm directory.
	    For example, if the user freddy has her uparm directory
	    as a subdirectory of Iraf:

		setenv UPARM /home/freddy/Iraf/uparm/

	    Users of the SAO IRAF-compatible parameter interface can
	    set UPARM to one of the writable $PFILES directories.
	    Other users can create a new directory (or use an existing
	    one).

	    If you are using IRAF through ASSIST, you also must ensure that
	    the 'iraf' and 'IRAFARCH' environment variables are set. 'iraf'
	    points to the IRAF installation directory (e.g. /usr/iraf/),
	    while 'IRAFARCH' is the architecture type (e.g. sparc). 

	    At many sites (e.g. SAO and NOAO), these are set automatically
	    at login time or are set by special scripts before running the
	    IRAF cl.  If this is not the case at your site, ask your
	    system manager or IRAF installer to help you determine the
	    proper values for these variables.  As with 'UPARM', it is
	    customary to set them in your .login file.

	    Note that a trailing "/" is required for both 'UPARM' and 'iraf'.

	    Finally, note that IRAF will be brought up from ASSIST using
	    NOAO's xgterm terminal emulator, if xgterm is in the your path.
	    Otherwise xterm will be used.  If, for some reason, you wish
	    to choose xterm or xgterm (or even another terminal emulator)
	    explicitly, simply set the environment variable NCLXTERM before
	    starting ASSIST:

		setenv NCLXTERM xterm			# use xterm
			or
		setenv NCLXTERM xgterm			# use xgterm

	(3) Start Up ASSIST

	    The assist system is started up using the assist script:

		assist [command options]

	    Command options are documented in the ASSIST help tree.